The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - E37: Joe Wicks - Changing Millions Of Lives in 15 Seconds!

Episode Date: September 5, 2019

Have you ever had that experience of meeting someone, and being so glad that they became successful? That’s what it was like meeting Joe. Joe Wicks, otherwise known as The Body Coach, is a health and fitness coach, author, investor and entrepreneur whos...

Quick one, just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio. And thirdly to to Amazon Music, who when they heard that we were expanding to the United States, and I'd be recording a lot more over in the States, they put a massive billboard in Times Square for the show. So thank you so much, Amazon Music. Thank you to our team. And

thank you to all of you that listened to this show. Let's continue. Joe Wicks, the body coach. You know, I've met, interviewed, and had the chance to understand the motivations, personalities, and the desires of hundreds of successful people over the last five years. And it continues to blow my mind how different every individual is. We often hunt for the secrets that made a certain person successful. What made them succeed? But interestingly, the more I've interviewed successful people, the less patterns I've been able to identify.

Maybe that is the secret. Maybe there is no secret. Joe grew up on a council estate in London. His mum left school at 15 years old. She had her first baby aged 17, which is Joe's older brother, and then Joe arrived just two years after that. She was always on benefits. She didn't have a clue about food or fitness, and Joe, he was predominantly raised on a diet of sandwiches, pasta, and chocolate. Joe's dad, he was a drug addict, and he was continually in and out of rehab.

And so his home life and upbringing was far from the white picket fence and parental solidarity that you often see in movies. Growing up, Joe aspired to be a PE teacher. But after eventually finding work as a teaching assistant, he realized that he wasn't cut out for it. It just wasn't for him. He switched lanes, borrowed money from his parents to buy kettlebells and a personal

training course, and soon after that he became a personal trainer. After handing out flyers in his local area, outside tube stations and anywhere he could, so few people turned up to his classes that he was unable to pay his parents back the £2,000 they had lent him. He recalls being so upset by the lack of clients he had and by the prospect of not being able to pay his parents back, but he was not prepared to give up. Soon after this, he had the idea to start posting short recipe videos on his Instagram, and his now famous 15-second recipe videos called Lean in 15 exploded. Joe doubled down on social media,

and he eventually became one of the most followed health and fitness channels on Instagram. His first published cookbook, Lean in 15, was a best-selling book in 2015. Lean in 15 has been translated into 18 languages around the world and sold over 1 million copies in the first year alone. He is a Channel 4 television presenter with his own show called The Body Coach. Joe has sold over 3 million books and has the second best-selling cookbook of all time. He sold 40,000 copies of his fitness DVD in a single week and he's allegedly responsible for a 25% increase in broccoli sales. He's worth tens of millions. He's an investor, a husband, a new dad,

and quite honestly, one of the most genuine, real, authentic people I've had the pleasure of meeting. Joe was the same guy on and off the podcast. He was sincere. He genuinely wants to lead a health, fitness, and well-being revolution that will positively impact the lives of everyone, from your kids to your grandparents. So why do I think he's been so successful? I think he's the right guy, at the right time, on the right platform, with the right message. Fueled by real passion and guided by pure intentions. You know when you meet someone and you think to yourself, I'm so glad that this person became successful. Joe is one of those people.

And his mission now is to get young people all across the UK fit and exercising. The world really is his oyster. So without further ado, this is the Diary of a CEO and I'm Stephen Bartlett. I hope nobody is listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. Joe, an absolute honour to be in your presence. You're a heavily, heavily admired young man for a variety of reasons. I want to get right into it because there's so much for us to talk about today. I guess the place I want to start is with context and the context I'm kind of looking for is the context of who Joe is and why. And I guess a lot of that will come from your childhood

and your early experiences i think that's the foundation of everybody so what's your what's the story of joe wick's childhood well firstly thanks for having me on the podcast i'm a recent listener and i am well into it mate honestly your honesty your openness and your self-awareness of just life and learnings and business i think it's really really inspirational so i'm buzzing to be on it oh thanks man and um i was actually on a five-hour journey up to York and I listened to like three or four and I was like this is this is going to be a really good chat so which ones are your favorite podcasts from the drivers here which ones are the ones that you've enjoyed I've so the

first one I listened to was the Toby Pierce which is obviously quite close to me because I'm a massive fan of Kayla and what she's achieved and he's a very very interesting guy and I was really just blown away by the growth and, and the kind of the, the dedication and the consistency with their brand, because they never, they never promote anything. It's just always the app.

And you can see where that effort has come out because I think they said, you know, up to 35 million people are using it. Crazy. I also love the chat with Ben Francis from Gymshark. Yeah. He's, he's very inspiring.

I just, I really believe there's two types of people in this world. There's people that genuinely like from their heart and soul love to see someone succeed and then there's people that just can't quite

really truly be happy for other people. Do you know what I mean? That may not be from like a jealousy perspective or an envy but maybe they just like, they just can't,

maybe they just wish it was them but when I see stories like you and I see stories like Ben, I just get fascinated. I'm drawn to successful people and I love, I want to drill down and find out what is it they've done

and what have they, you know, what behaviours have they learned or kind of implemented to achieve that success. So do you know what I mean about that? Yeah. And do you know what?

I think there's something remarkable, even from spending a couple of moments with you today, there's something remarkably authentic about you. And I think this, for me, forms part of the picture as to why you've resonated with a lot of people because um you've been on social media a long time and people are going to figure out who the real joe wicks is

eventually especially when you're constantly making videos and content and just from the you know i don't know i've been here about 20 minutes now i've your authenticity i think is part of the reason why um people have been drawn to you so i've totally evaded the first question my childhood that's the thing if you had met me as a kid you know you just would well basically i come from a pretty kind of hectic chaotic you know upbringing i was i grew up in a council estate my dad was in and out of um rehab for drug addiction so i was around quite a quite a chaotic home and a lot of shouting a lot of you know verbal abuse and whatnot and I was I was very hyperactive maybe that you know I had

behavior issues I didn't have very good attention span um I wasn't academic and I couldn't focus on anything for very long but as a kid I was very into like fitness and activity and moving and I always I was going to use that as a release I imagine because I was just always on the move so I wasn't I wasn't like an overweight kid, even though my diet was terrible. But you would have looked at me and thought, he's going to end up in prison or he's going to end up on drugs. That's what you really would have thought about me because I was just climbing the walls.

I was swearing. I was up and running about and didn't respect any kind of rules as such. I was a bit of a – I was more like a class clown than an actual naughty kid, but I was just always attention-seeking and disruptive. So you wouldn't have looked and thought that's going to be like an entrepreneur. And that's going to be someone who's going to like go on to connect with millions of people and help other people with, you know, with my business. Did you ever see yourself becoming, what did you think you were going to become in your own head? That's a good question. And I think I, like I said, I don't come from an ambitious

family. We're not a family of entrepreneurs. You know, my mum's a social worker who left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications. She had me and my brother by the time she was 19. She was really young. And my dad's a roofer. So we weren't pushed to go to university. We weren't encouraged to do anything other than be happy. My mum and dad always used to say for all the the drama and trouble I went through as a kid one thing I always had was love and support I always knew that my dad loved me I always knew that my mum was there for me and she used to say I don't care if you're a dustman or a doctor I'll always love you and that that having that kind of feeling and that support behind you definitely made me feel relaxed about who I was going to be I wasn't under pressure to be anything um but my in my head all I was ever going to be was a PE teacher I thought I'd be a school teacher because I'd work

with kids and I'd have fun um and I'd you know have summer holidays and maybe get a mortgage and have a house one day but it's really weird when you come from that culture of not much self belief and not no expectations you know like there's no one around me doing a lot and succeeding a lot as a kid and so um my ambition and my motivation came really just through having fun and putting content out and realizing that I have an ability to connect with people on a really deep level. So there's this, I guess, this stereotype that entrepreneurs are so intentional that they were like, you know, selling sweets in primary school and they've always been hustlers and, you know, motivated and they come from, you know, part of the stereotype as well, unfortunately, is that

they come from, you know, great families or that they have money or some kind of advantage. That's a stereotype that kind of varies, but you kind of really buck that stereotype and that trend because from what you've just said there, not only didn't you ever think you were going to be an entrepreneur, people around you didn't really think you were going to be an entrepreneur um people around you didn't really think you're going to be an entrepreneur either and um it happened i guess through the the love of something and the passion and that ability to resonate with people and that's why honestly from just like the meeting meeting you for like 20 minutes i'm like okay the author because my job here and the reason why i i travel and meet guests often is because i'm trying to

figure out why they became successful so i can take a bit of travel and meet guests often is because i'm trying to figure out why they became successful so i can take a bit of that into my own life but also i'm trying to like debunk stereotypes and then your authenticity and how like when i met you i'm like there's no other version of you like you're not going to walk out this door now and say oh thank fuck he's gone prick like yeah no that's that's true and it you're like like you said when you live your life on social media through instagram and stories every day like you can't hide you can only you can you can put on a face and be a character but how far is that going to get you and i've always just been really honest and really um passionate and and i've and i very recently i've got into

this thing where i i never used to believe in the secret and the law of attraction i think it's a bit you know wishy-washy but in the last month so, I've been putting out a lot of positive content, really powerful, inspirational stuff. And I've realized I've actually become a kind of channel just for my philosophy and my energy. But when I put positive stuff out there, it's coming back in waves and waves. And I feel like I'm in this flow state where I'm putting out content, I'm reaching out to people and sharing their testimonials and their stories and it's coming back in waves I mean I'm spending so much time at the moment doing dms

and voice notes to people um and I'm I'm not just a fitness trainer anymore I'm counseling these people I'm life coaching them and I've realized I love it like I really enjoy it people that have you know really deep stuff like been suicidal or in relationships or going through and depression or eating disorders and I used to find it really hard to reply but now I take a moment to read them I flag them when I've got the energy I come back and I send them a voice note and I always bring it back to the thing of you know getting yourself moving maybe get out some fresh air do some exercise and bring it back to exercise so I'm not trying to be a counsellor but I'm giving these people

like a little bit of information or a tiny little catalyst or a nudge in the right direction to get them feeling happier. And it's so powerful. Sometimes it's just letting them know that someone gives a F about them, you know, or cares of what they've said as opposed to the advice itself.

It's just that, do you know what? It's listening, yeah. And I can never read one and I can't read a message like that and ignore it. I just can't. I can't let them see that I've read it and not kind of giving them my attention. It might just be a 15 second voice note,

but that means so much to people. And so I can continue doing that. And my dad said the other day, like, you know, be careful because a girl came to, I did a meetup and she was in recovery for cocaine addiction. And she said,

she came to a hill sprint session at eight o'clock in the morning on Richmond Hill. And I was so, she asked me to record a message for her for her group and before i thought about it i was thinking right i really need to think what i'm going to say and i had this really emotional feeling that she's gone from having a really tough struggle and she's been really you know struggling to get off of her addiction through through drugs and she's turned up at eight o'clock in the morning to run up and down a hill with me and i found that so inspiring so i shared that

message and now the last week or so i've had so many people you know in recovery and addiction saying how amazing that one story was so you know my dad said to me joe be careful because addicts have they they have their love their love vampires they they want attention and they don't know when to stop and they'll keep asking they and i said dad what you don't realize is they're actually it's giving me energy like i mean i'm feeling alive and happier doing this right now than i've ever been and And I think he didn't quite understand where that was coming from. But it's because I'm having an impact, so I'm helping people, that it isn't kind of draining me. It's actually, in a way, like lifting me up.

And like I said, I've become a vehicle for this positive energy and this message that I'm spreading. And it's way more than just fitness now. It's becoming, I'm really, I'm inspiring people to change their lives, to get out of relationships. Not like on purpose, but just by the way I am. People are really kind of leaning on me. And I think it's such a wonderful position to be in.

And it's really like what makes me happy on a daily basis. And yeah, so like, you know, people will look at you and here's what, I think here's what they'll think. They'll think, good looking guy on Instagram, delivers great great fitness advice making a lot of money i bet that his ambition or his motivation is coming from making all this money and um looking beautiful is that correct it's so far from who i am and the truth and when when i do get negative sentiment on social media if it's about people calling me a sellout or saying he's just about the money and what do they say what's the the negative sentiment is like so i don't believe that the general population should count calories i don't and i just think you should focus on healthy cooking and regular exercise and and by doing that you naturally put

yourself in an energy deficit and therefore you can get lean and stay healthy um and also that i'm a sellout and that it was all about money and the whole thing with instagram and lean in 15 or any you know deal that i get it's all about money and i i i really think that the money is a byproduct of success but the real success is that i've been able to talk to you your mom your nan seven year old kids that turned up to my events like i'm talking to such a wide demographic of people that and it does you know it comes from personal trainers it's always personal trainers i never get like a random mum or dad following me saying oh what a sellout or you know he's he's lying and keeping information from his followers

like it's always personal trainers snobbery and and you know that comes from a place of um you know jealousy and envy and i actually used to get upset used to really affect me on a spiritual and emotional level i would lay in bed thinking how can someone so positive so passionate putting out such a good message still be getting dug out by these people but I know it comes from a frustration like when I was a personal trainer running around doing boot camps clients cancelling on you and not people not turning up it's a tough industry it's difficult it's stressful and it's hard to make a true you know truly make a career out of it so i'm actually more compassionate of people that attack me now how do you deal with it now someone says joe you're you know you're an h.i.t or whatever and

they start coming at you for things that really matter to you like your work yeah how do you deal with it like talk me through it you open your phone you look on instagram there is personal trainer ken and he said some stuff what what goes through your mind so it used to affect me like i used to get really you know upset like it would drain my energy and make me feel really like what about all the positive comments yeah so now i've learned to basically the positive stuff i'm doing i it drowns out the negative i never never engage in negative comments. I never reply, you know, people like do podcasts and videos about me and dedicate their time to like slagging me off and saying how bad my message is. But I always think, why have I sold 3 million cookbooks? Why have I got 5 million people following me? And I always come back to it's

because my message, I've never ever talked about calories. I never talked about people tracking this and counting that. And so I'm doing something right something right and i just i've learned to kind of just have a moment and read a positive comment and it drowns that out but one of the most hurtful things was when someone said i'm surprised he's not charging them kids for the hit sessions like all he cares about is money but i actually traveled all around the uk with nikki and my friend dom and glenn we took a cameraman it was self-funded i went to 15 schools in five days i trained with 10 000 kids and i was i was knackered and we had brands offering to give us 100 grand to be a part of it and i was like this is about me making an impact i don't want any i don't want to get paid

for this and so when someone said that i was like how can you how can you say that when i'm so passionate i'm clearly on this mission and you think i'm going to charge the kids for the hit sessions like so it does hurt. It affects you, but it might be like a temporary thing. It might be a couple of hours. Whereas before it'd be a few days and it would like affect me and I wouldn't want to do videos.

I'd be like, it's, it's kind of making me feel sad. Like it would make me feel sad. I'd sit with Rosie and I'd be like, why, why are these videos there and stuff? But now it might last an hour or two hours and I can go right.

So what has all of that taught you about the nature of haters? It comes back to that thing of I look at people like Ben Francis or, you know, Kayla and Emily Sky and amazing people doing great things. And I get excited by their success. It inspires me. Whereas for some people, other people's success makes them feel inadequate or unsuccessful or they get green with envy and jealousy but i always think how can i learn from these people that are doing these amazing things and and be a better you know role model or businessman so that comes down to the thing of can you accept other people's success and you might experience this even close friends

to you that you went to school with some of them you can just tell are genuinely happy for you and the other ones that may say they are but they're just not quite the same and that that is just something that is is within people so i think anyone out there that feels that jealousy or envy or want to want to have a stab at someone try and turn that kind of um that that feeling into a positive inspiration and be like right i want to do a little bit more of what he's doing i'm going to be positive i'm going to put out a positive message and and reach more people. I just think negativity, you can't, it won't breed success. So for all the people that do send negative stuff my way,

I always combat it with more positive, more nice videos, more DMs, more voice notes. And I get more back. I'm like, I'm all right, I'm doing the right thing. And so I remember that my mission is still the same. And do you, I think this is something we're all guilty of, including myself. I can go on a post, the same. And do you, I think this is something we're all guilty of, including myself. I can go on a post, something that I've put online,

and there will be, there could be a thousand lovely comments. But it's that one negative comment, because as humans, I think we all have a negativity bias. I've got to the point now where I, all the positive things people say to me, honestly, this is just the truth. So I don't care if it sounds bad. It goes over me like a water for ducks back. I just don't absorb it. And I think what's happened to me is I've realized that with me personally, I'm unable

to accept some things in and not others. For me, it's either all or nothing. And I think with people generally, their opinion of themselves is either created by external narratives or society or opinions, or it's not at all. So I think very early on, I decided that the good and the bad, I'm not going to let it form my opinion of myself. And I'm going to try my very, very best to build my own opinion of myself based on my own thoughts and my own rationale and my own logic because I'm scared of if I let Jenny over here tell me that I'm amazing and I was incredible for doing whatever I've done I'm also going to let Dave here from Burnley who says you're an arsehole and a failure and I'm also going to let him in and so my my sort of self-defense has been,

don't believe any of it. But I still fall fault of when Dave pops up and says something. What is a negative thought? What, what I'm just trying to think why anyone would dig you out. Like what can I dig you out for? Listen, this is the thing,

Joe, everybody gets dug out. A guy the other day, you're an absolute fraud. There's no record of you ever making a million quid anywhere on online. And there I am in my bedroom thinking, do I? Do I go at him? Do you reply?

Do you engage or not? I never engage, never go into combat. The older I've got, the more I've learned to just let them go. And if I do respond, it's with kindness now. Years ago, would you have snapped? Oh my Lord, every one of them. Publicly or just by DM? I'd try and keep it as private as possible,

especially as my business got bigger and I became an employer of 700 people. I have to set a good example and there's people following me and I have to set a good example. But when someone says something to you and they, as you said, they come at something

which is the antithesis of the truth. When they say, oh, you're selling out to, you're rinsing kids and you know you've just gone around the country and given to kids and that's something that's very close to you yeah it's one of those things maybe they know that they know what's going to nudge you they do you know what's going to hurt you and it is it is about hurting that person on an emotional level but like i said this i reckon one percent is negative 99 of my content and my stuff coming

is positive and i'm so i'm so clear with my vision and i'm more i'm you know that thing of purpose driven over profit and i i truly believe in that i believe in you know giving before you get given and i gave you know 10 000 tweets before i made a single pound on social media and you know hundreds of thousands of um comments and tweets and replies to people and all the stuff i've given means that when i release a book in six months time it becomes a bestseller because the love is there and the attention is there and the respect and the and the admiration for what you do means that people will support your products i think a lot of people assume well i've got a million followers therefore a million

people buy my book but it doesn't work like that it really doesn't you have to be nurturing people yeah and and some people would assume that I had a marketing degree and I understand social media and I did this big digital content course. But I was in my kitchen in Surbiton with my iPhone shouting out midget trees and broccoli and Lucy B and all that. And I had no idea I was building a brand.

This brings me to my next question, I guess. Why were you successful? So here's the thing. So there was a guy joe flicks and then there was joe wicks um both of them were really into fitness and um food healthy eating and all of these kinds of things why were you successful and not this hypothetical joe right flicks guy what is it about you i get asked that question i always want to kind of spin it on the person say why do you think i stood out like but i'll ask you that in a second so first of all there's obviously millions of trainers and there's obviously different philosophies and different ideas and i think if i had started today as joe wicks doing

the same thing on social media i wouldn't have had the success that i've had because it was the right time with the right idea where 15 minutes was a good amount of time for people to get engaged and it was a 15 second video I think people's attention spans change I think people's even now even busier plus there's probably like a billion users on Instagram so my growth was quite you know in the early days was quite quick but it comes down to I had an idea that was just simple that got people in the kitchen you know like when Jamie Oliver used to get cooky, get you excited about food and made it fun and simple. And all I did was I took a 15 second Instagram video and showed how to cook a 15 minute meal. And I called it Lean in 15. That was the hashtag.

But like I said, there was no real vision. I didn't think I was going to get a book deal off Hammett Millen. And so consistency, but also just me as a person. Like if you threw threw me into a room into a party with people I didn't know I'd come out with a few mates you know I just because I'm I'm like that I like talking to people I like getting to know people and I like listening to people as well and I think that's a that's a two way thing social media is a conversation I'm I've always been about what can I do to help you what can my content do is it is it about me showing off my abs and building my ego and feeling great about myself?

Or is it like, can I use this bit of content to make you want to go and do a workout and make you go and feel good? And so it really, I think it's obviously a personality and a genuine passion when there wasn't really many

Instagram fitness people like monetizing it such. You had Kayla was a couple years before me, but I obviously, Kayla and me and some other big people have set the standard that you can make a lot of money through fitness content so now when you see fitness instagrammers yeah they might really love fitness and want to help you but they could also know i'm going to make business out of this so like here's how i'd summarize it from your assessment there i imagine it almost like a padlock you know the padlocks

where you've got to get four numbers in a row yeah right and if you get four numbers in a row then the lock opens or like the lottery where you've got to get four numbers in a row? Yeah. Right. And if you get four numbers in a row, then the lock opens. Or like the lottery where you've got to get six numbers in a row to win. I think you got the like proverbial four or five numbers in a row where you're the right person. Right. And when I say the right person, I mean, aesthetically, you're a good looking guy. But you also have a lot of, and I took, and then also personality traits, consistency, passion. Right. And that's what constitutes my definition of the right person at the right time and I think not just in the

evolution of social media but in the sort of societal trend of getting a demand for fitness yeah fitness recipes um things like you know veganism and eating well and look you know I think that was a that's an emerging trend I think the right place in terms of the right platforms and things like that. Yeah. Being around at the right time, getting on there early. And the other thing I'd like to add to the right person is your personality, because I think people really resonate with you. And as you said, you can walk in a room and I believe you'll walk out with loads of friends

because you, because you're real. Right. And that's something that you just can't fake in the longterm. And then, yeah, the last one's the right message delivered in the right way. So doing it in a concise way that's simple for Jenny in her bedroom or whatever. I think that combination is like getting the right number four times on a padlock and it opens. I think that's a good analogy, actually. And when I go to some of my book signings or I do these random meetups I've got into recently, I'll say, right, meet me at Richmond Park.

We're going to cycle around and there'll be, you know,-year-old kids and there'll be 65 year old women I really speak to everyone because I'm trying to make fitness accessible and fun for everyone my whole brand if you if I was to summarize my brand it's like fitness for all you know accessible um non-judgmental and and and I really am on a mission to get people happier and it's not just about fat loss and losing weight and looking a certain way I'm now way more in tune with the mental health benefits of exercise you know elevating your mood productivity just general happiness and i'm more in tune now with that than ever which is suddenly i'm talking like the last few weeks since i've started doing the voice notes it's really opened up a whole new world because i used to sit and do written stuff but the power

of a voice note has allowed me to engage and i now realize that i am on a mission so clear that i'm actually working harder now than when you met me four or five years ago like if i if you met me when i was bang on my phone doing tweets i was stuck in it but now i'm doing i'm doing more but more valuable if you know i mean so it's not scalable in terms i can't do a thousand messages a day but i'm doing a hundred really good quality ones that are having a massive impact. So I'm working harder now than I ever have been. I want to talk about that.

So there's a few things I want to talk about. The first one is the voice note thing, but the second is about the impacts of fitness. This is just a personal thing because I'm on a mission to try and get fitter. But on the voice note thing, a bit of context, ahead of you meeting me today, you sent me a voice note on Instagram, just context um ahead of you meeting me today you sent

me a voice note on instagram just saying like hey mate that they're looking forward to etc etc um and a few other things and that really caught me off guard really yeah but in a good way i had voice notes from people yet people don't people send me voice notes um but it's rare and it's and it's very personal and like um in a really good way it's like wow he's in my room he's here right it's like oh my god and it's like you broke this wall because it was into it and it meant that i had to send one back as well which i liked and i would never have normally done but it instantly was like i knew you right and i there's something so powerful about things like that that most people don't do that kind of break that wall

that i just think is so and it really inspired me actually. I thought, why, why do I sit there typing to people when I know my voice and them listening to me when I give them advice is, would be so much more powerful. Mate, I can't stress it enough. Like if you are someone on social media, who's trying to build an audience or wants to engage and help people by doing that, it speeds, it's so much quicker. It's so much easier. You can read their message as you do it. You can, you know, refer back to what they've said because i'm getting some really intense deep messages that it just wouldn't warrant a couple of texts it would be like it wouldn't be really true listening to them so i i listen to it i read i digest it and i send them a

little 30 you can send a minute sorry 60 second video sorry a 60 second voice note and i sometimes do a couple but the impact that has on people, firstly, they cannot believe you read the message. So let alone they, you know, they think it's someone else. And like I said, I will come in this living room and I'll do my workout. I'll put Indy to bed, my little daughter Indy, and I'll come in here and I get in at seven o'clock

and I go, Rose, I'll be up in an hour. I'm just going to do an hour. I look at my phone, it's 11 o'clock and I swear to God in my head, I've been doing it an hour because I'm enjoying it. I love it. And I, and I'm getting voice notes back and people are like, wow, I can't believe you can do this. Thank you so much. You have no idea. And now I'm using, and I always ask the people, um, you know, can I screenshot and share your little testimony on my

story? I always get permission, but by doing that, it means there's more and more coming on a daily basis because people go, he's reading it. He's, he's listening. He loves it. I'm going to reach out to him now. On my DMs, you've got a lot more followers than i have on my dms it's out of control right like so i get you know depending on what i upload and what i'm doing sort of in terms of my personal brand stuff there's thousands of messages a week and some of them as you mentioned earlier are very personal really, really hard to read at times. How do you deal with the amount of DMs you get and how do you decide what to respond to? And do you read all of them?

I pretty much open my, so my little cousin Luca, he's my community manager. He kind of oversees because I've got a community about 6 million across all the platform. So he'll be the kind of, you know, the eyes and the ears if you like. But in terms of the voice, it's always me. You know, it's always me doing the voice notes. can't be anybody else you can't replicate that so i have a system now where i'm kind of i'm bad in in a way that i will do it all day long from the minute i wake up so now i'm trying to sort of chunk it and do it in a certain period of time so i might come in the living room and do like three or four hours of it and that does seem crazy but that is my job

that's my work that's my energy source is what i do how do you decide what to reply to oh in terms of so i i i if it's a really you know little quick little thing like i don't want to give the game away yeah if it's a little thing like you know hey joe i just tried one of your workouts for the first time i loved it i might just send a little emoji say well done have a great day see you soon you know let me know you get on with the next one but if it's a really intense paragraph of like i said people with eating disorders or you know really really tough kind of social issues at home or whatever i flag i need to be in the right mindset um but before the voice note i was doing videos yeah but what i realized is sometimes i didn't have the energy the emotional energy in my face so voice notes change because i can be really tired and be a bit lethargic sure i can pick up the energy through my voice and send them a really really lovely message so i if it's anything

where look joe i know you might get millions of messages and i know you're not going to read this i always give time to those ones because they're the ones that have really you know reached out and i almost i treat as if like you you walked past me in the street and you tried to stop me and say hi and say thank you or be grateful for that or say um you know thanks for giving me some some help so for me to ignore it like it's the same i'm not just seeing screen names i'm seeing people and like i said like the last few months i've been i've become so in tune with it and and realize how powerful it is that i'm actually cranking up my energy levels i'm doing more i'm putting out more instagram lives and so now what i'm doing is taking a collective of questions that i'm getting

a lot of like motivation i did a little igtv on motivation so i'm taking what i'm learning from these questions and spinning into a little 60 second video so that the general population that follow me can also learn from that i mentioned a second ago i'm trying to get into um fitness a bit more i've been going to the gym quite consistently. Before Ibiza, I was doing a little bit better. Went to Ibiza a week ago, kind of downhill since then. But the challenge that everyone has with fitness, as I'm sure you've heard, is the dedication and the commitment to stick at it

and to keep going. What is the reason why people like me sometimes bottle it and we struggle to form a routine why is that the biggest challenge that people face is motivation that's the thing that people struggle with whether it's cooking or exercising and really i said today that motive you're not going to wake up to my morning feeling motivated to work out but the motivation is waiting for you at the end of the workout so when you go for a 15 minute HI. So when you go for a 15-minute HIIT session or you go for a power walk or a cycle around the park,

at the end of it, you know, the physical endorphins that are released in your brain make you feel good. They give you energy. It makes you feel a little bit more focused, a bit more productive. So for me, when I get asked the question, why do you exercise?

It always comes back to the energy, you know, the energy that I get through it and the kind of happiness that I feel from it. And it doesn't need to be this long, of one hour long session with a pt or going to barry's boot camp or crossfit you know i really believe that the future of home the future of fitness is home fitness is home workouts we're seeing that with peloton we're seeing that with um you know lots of online platforms and and and my youtube channel growing so quick you know i get two and a half million views a month of people doing the workout. So,

you know, make your living room. This is my studio. This is where I film my workouts, but they are my tripod and camera there. This is, I move the sofas. I film the workouts.

It's me. I press record in real time and people love that. It's just anywhere, anytime. And so, but Joe, I need loads of equipment. No,

no, you don't need equipment your body is you know a great a great a great piece of equipment you can do all sorts i i do like 20 minute 15 minute workouts but ultimately you want to be successful and that can be for all your business but nothing is more important to you and your family and your loved ones and your kids when you're older than your health so it's not about putting pressure on yourself to have this really crazy routine where you're doing hours a day but you know 20 minutes a day and a lot of you you might have read you know listened to podcasts and read some stuff about entrepreneurs

and ceos that most of the truly hyper hyper successful people all have a fitness routine whether it's um you know tony robbins or gary vee or um um whoever it might be um richard branson example who plays tennis every day for the past 40 years goes cycling he's like 70 years old these people fundamentally see the benefit of exercise not on just the way you look but the way you operate on a daily basis I mean I don't know what you're like with sleep but another thing that's underestimated is the importance of sleep and it's all great being a hero like you know I'm running on this amount of sleep but a good night's sleep is the best pre-workout

and the best way of functioning and optimizing your day. You know, your focus, your vision. So really it comes down to, you know, your food, your sleep and your exercise. And your love life. And your love life, yeah. And I think it's just people have been confused by it becoming this complicated thing.

But really it's, like I said, just working out consistently, doing whatever you can, 15 minutes here and there cooking healthy food and and and consistently doing it and keeping it up what what what first of all you're not really out of shape some ceos getting all the i've met a few ceos with startups who they go oh joe you should have met me two years ago before i started my company but it is it's the hour it's the work it's the hours they put into their work what stops you you from exercise and what's helping you back? So right now I'm, I've been doing what, and I was asking that question, I guess more as like a, I know that my audience struggle with that question and it's, people ask me that

question all the time. Right now I'm like, I'm in a bit of a rhythm and a bit of a flow state. So I've, um, with work or fitness, with, with fitness, I've been going, I'll go every other day. Um, if not every day. And if, and if I don't go that day it's because I'm not on a plane or something and how much better do you feel after do you feel amazing amazing

and in fact when I got back from holiday recently and I didn't go for two or three days I swear to God my life it felt like

my life collapsed bear in mind I'd gone every day for five months from about February right and the three or four days i had off i'd like it was like hard to get out of bed i was like i wasn't motivated about much at all in life

i'd be for the you have it's a calm down pledge you don't sleep much as well it's a tough one to come back from i didn't yeah and you're right and i didn't but i didn't even really party and i'd be throwing out one night of the four that we were there and it was i just i lost that momentum kind of yeah and the endorphins whatever it gives you in your brain i just lost it and and then i went back to the gym a couple of days later and i felt great again you can read yeah you can almost reset it i went to a wedding at the weekend i slept five hours a night in a tp and was boozing gin and tonic smashing the champagne and whatnot i felt like death but i got on my little peloton bike did 20 minutes and it

just reset me almost instantly within 10 minutes i just it levels me out it reminds me why i exercise so i'm one of these people that can have a little blowout or a little you know little party but i can quickly switch back into what i want to be doing i think that's the thing it's not dragging it out for a week you know you've done your ibf had your fun get back to work get back training and feel the benefits it's been amazing for me it's been one of the the biggest sort of productivity and success hacks i've experienced definitely this year is consistently going to the gym and you're right my sleep's been fine but it's a lot better now

yeah an extra hour even if you have an extra hour night that that cumulative effect over a month and a year is so so powerful and i think people just underestimate as a as a as a kind of health fact and a marker in your health that sleep is so important and you might have you know an extra hour let's just say you turn the tv off an hour and that extra sleep means that the next day you can operate and reach more people connect and and and you know have a more productive day i want to go in a different direction it's a completely different direction um something you said at the start of this conversation was that the the household you grew up in was full of drama and you referenced that it was full of shouting yeah um the reason that triggered me a little bit or resonated with me

shall i say is because the household i grew up in as a kid was full of my mum in particular screaming in my dad's face for hours and hours and hours and hours on end and my mum will probably listen to this my mum could scream in my dad's face for six hours and she's Nigerian so she can get real volume and my dad would sit there like a mannequin as if um he was no longer with us right and I have said on this podcast before that growing up that taught me that relationships were like hell because the only model as a young kid that I knew was relationships equal, ladies screaming in your face for six hours, no freedom. So why would I want that?

Yeah. Why would I ever want that? So when I was 14 years old and I like fell in love with this like girl, as you do, the minute she said she wanted to be in a relationship with me, I told her all the reasons why we couldn't be. And I had chased her for two, three years or whatever whatever and that story played out again and again in my life you know i look behind you and i can see um is that your daughter up there that's my daughter india that's my wife rosie yeah and then me and nikki when we got antiqued with a flower at a house party someone threw flower in our face

yeah i'm a family man now and i am i'm very different to the child and i'm the i'm a family man now and I am, I'm very different to the child and I'm a different parent to the way I was parented. And because of that experience, I mean, I definitely had, I had issues around, you know, trust and commitment, you know, because my dad would always be in and out. And I'd always think, you know, why is he off in rehab again? Why are we not enough? Why can't he stay at home with us and stuff? And it definitely used to upset me. But I don't want to be someone that shouts at india i don't want to be impatient and snapping i see that in my mum and dad i see um you know and there

used to be holes in my door like when i used to live in council house the doors were really thin and i remember seeing like holes and it was like cardboard inside and i was just thinking why are them holes in it was only when i got a bit older i realized that was because my dad would have had a row and punched his whole you know his hand through the fist and his fist through the door. And I'm so much more calm. And I really, I've taken what I've learned as a child. And rather than replicate that and follow that pattern, I've actually really like done the opposite. And I really focus on speaking to Rosie calmly and polite and being respectful around her and also treating Indy like being patient. And it's hard when you've got a baby, like they push your buttons.

So you've got to try staying calm when having a meltdown but i just have a few techniques that help me to like not be that dad that shouts and that dad that throws stuff across the room and you definitely have to learn it's something you have to practice and put into practice through time but i just didn't want to be i didn't want to get involved in drugs i didn't want to be um someone that wasn't there for their parent for their for their kids and their their partner so now like i if you had met me a few years ago i didn't believe in marriage i just thought no i'm never going to get married i met rosie and i fell in love and then suddenly i wanted to be married and it's made me actually really happy it's made me realize that you can be in a relationship and be content and be you know faithful and loyal and not just run away when things get hard because that's all i've learned that you run away when things get hard and even as a teenager when things

are tough i'd slam the door i'd run out the house i wouldn't come back for a few days or i'd go traveling when things got difficult i'd always always ran away um that works to an extent but then you get to a certain age you know this isn't working anymore what what is it so i'm the exact same where and this is if my ex-girlfriend's listening to this, which she probably is, she'll tell you the same thing. Because I learned that relationships were like prison. Whenever my ex-girlfriend would like basically say the same thing to me twice in a slightly aggravated way, I would literally get my stuff and go. And I told her, I said, if you ever shout at me, whatever,

I'm going to get, I'm not going to, I'm never going to shout at you back. And I never, ever have ever in my history even got like really emotionally moved by a romantic like interest I would just get my stuff and go I would like immediately you're quite calm you're passive super passive yeah I'd never get never and I get my stuff and I leave because my dad never would he would never get up and just go so I used to stand there as a kid saying dad like don't allow her to speak to you like that go and so you know whenever my girlfriend's was that i just get myself so what was what is it about rosie that made you change your perspective on marriage and commitment and think you know i'm going to settle down i'm not going to keep running away from well i was

all i was actually in a relationship from the age of 19 to 29 so i went traveling to um australia so i'm actually i say i wasn't i say i was a frightened of commitment but i wasn't i just I was actually in a relationship from the age of 19 to 29. So I went traveling to Australia. So I'm actually, I say I wasn't, I say I was a frightened of commitment, but I wasn't, I just wasn't. The marriage thing was the whole,

the whole thing that kind of really intimidated me, but because my mom and dad never got married. And if they had, they would have been divorced over and over again. So when that relationship ended and I met Rosie, I just, I just felt instantly like myself around her. And she's really,

she's really like open and loving. And she's just, she's's kind and when you're with someone that makes you feel like you're completely yourself I suppose it just made me really settle into it and it was a natural progression we had Indy first we had the baby before we got married but I I just it all moved so quick like I wanted to live with her straight I wanted to have a house I wanted to and before I was always fighting that I was always like I'm too young to settle down I'm 19 but I'd still be there when I was 27 28 29 like still and I definitely hung it hung on and hung into that relationship too long and by the end of it I was not the person I truly was I wasn't being patient I wasn't being kind I wasn't being affectionate and loving I was I just was kind of hoping that you know she would leave me and it's

just such a bad way to think but there's so many people in that predicament where they're with someone that they're like unsure about that person has turned them into a worse version of themselves i truly believe that yeah and i i just remember thinking like this isn't my true spirit this isn't who i want to be and i i actually and i'll be honest with you i i used to talk to my mom and dad but i was with this girl from such a young age and we really, we grew apart. And I actually went to have some therapy. I said, I need to speak to someone who isn't someone I know. And I had a two hour therapy session with a lady in London.

And after that, I walked out and I came straight home and I told her, I can't be with you anymore. It was that simple. It was listening to someone that didn't know me and said, why are you still in this relationship? Why are you doing this to yourself? And why are you not being happy? Why are you holding this to yourself and why are you not being happy why are you holding this person back and it was a two-hour therapy session and it changed my life forever because I think I might have you know I could have potentially stayed in that relationship for longer and had a kid and do you know I mean I I'd done the right thing and I I got help and it was

great and that was the only time I've ever had therapy but I can say if you're in a position where you feel that you can't make a decision you want to speak to someone speak to someone who's completely impartial and unbiased it really helped me and why had you stayed in a position where you feel that you can't make a decision, you want to speak to someone, speak to someone who's completely impartial and unbiased. It really helped me. And why had you stayed in that relationship for 10 years? If you kind of deep down knew that this person wasn't making you the best person you possibly could be. And they weren't.

It's like that thing you talked about on your podcast, when you said about the frog in the saucepan and I've hot water, like you don't just jump out. It gets, it starts off really good and it's still warm and cozy and suddenly it gets a little bit hotter and then eventually you know you you kind of a part of you dies you're not being who you truly want to be and um being out of that relationship and being with Rosie and having Indy and I'm now like way more content than I've ever been and it's really calm it's quite a nice

feeling to like not be thinking the grass is green now to not be wanting to get out of a relationship you're in um and to kind of want to be running away and it just it just it just came through making a decision of like let go of this person it's you're doing a good thing for her but you're also freeing yourself and and all i think about is that she and i really hope that she's as happy as me and she's met someone and we don't speak or anything but you know that's something i hope that it's happening somewhere in the world so you know talked about a lot of things that are great love life smashed it kid looks amazing um got a really nice house you're successful in your business you're growing you're in a bit of a flow state at the moment and good things are happening because you've put a lot of good energy out into the world. I guess my question is, what are you scared of?

What am I scared of? I'm scared of like regretting, you know, looking back and thinking like, did I spend enough time with my friends and family? But I also know that I'm doing that. I'm instinctively, I'm not just driven to work constantly all the time. Like I have really amazing periods where I'll smash work, I'll work intensely for like a month or two. Then I went traveling for a month to costa rica with indy and

rosie and we're about to head to america so i'm kind of i already know the balance um and like i said i'm now i've got this clarity in my mind and like this flow state that i'm in that i just feel like nothing can go if i have if i keep doing what i'm doing nothing can go wrong are you scared of dying i'm not i'm not not scared as no i'm scared of how do you feel about death i don't know i just i don't think about it really i'm scared well i'm scared of my mom and dad dying i haven't had any family close to me die because they had me so young so don't forget my mom was 19 so all my family are quite young my mom and dad are and i think losing them is going to be tough but it's all part of life isn't it I suppose what does your mum mean to you my mum's like she's so wonderful my mum and she's probably

my most kind of she I'm most connected to my mum more than anyone I think and that's because of what we've been through and I really now want to take care of her and look after her and she's she's so wonderful she's given her whole life basically dedicated herself to like helping raise me and Nikki. And now she helps her. She helps people who've been through like young offenders and through difficult stuff.

She's a social worker and stuff. So she is everything, you know, but I've also, my relationship with my dad, like it was difficult when I was growing up, but now, you know, we are, we're communicating a lot better. We hang out, you know, we're, I don't hold anything against my mom and dad,

like for all the madness. I just think that was what we've been through. That's our journey. a lot better we hang out you know we're it i don't hold anything against my mom and dad like for all the all the madness i i just think that was what we've been through that's our journey that's you are who you are today because of it so i'm not somebody looks back i i think we've all had difficulties but some people like really hold on to that and it affects them forever where other people can just let it go and let it just move on like it's done like that's it that's what it was just love the person they are today that's more important that's a really really i think important point that um for me appears to be the answer to a lot of the energy the negative energy i experience in like my direct messages from people is their like inability to like let go of someone that's wrong them and the real shame is because that person's

wrong them once upon a time they're then dragging that negativity through their life and letting it destroy their future and their present yeah and like you know i've got a someone that's really close to me that um had a really bad experience with their dad when they were younger um and they just won't let go and i see it damaging their adult life now even though they don't speak to their dad anymore but because they just won't forgive that person so how do you forgive someone more generally not just your parents but how do you forgive someone that's you know harmed you or done you wrong in the past what's the i totally i can hear that message and i can see where that's coming from because you know my mom and dad have they've had their own trauma such to such an extent that they've been in you know therapy and all their lives and also you know with addiction it's manifested different ways but it and it makes

me sad all you want all you want is your mom and dad to be happy and you want people around you to be happy but for some sometimes i can see they've been struggling their whole life to let go of whatever it is that's hurting them and you know um holding them back and for me it's a case of i just believe that you have to live for the moment. You have to enjoy the day. Like what's going on today? Like what can you do today to make you feel happy? And how is it going to serve you

thinking about what you went through as a child? Like you can have, my mom and dad have had all kinds of therapy, like, you know, regressive childhood hypnotherapy. You go back to the, you know, my dad's even started doing ayahuasca and plant-based medicine to go back and just to get it all out of him.

But I just think you have to just take ownership and control of yourself on a daily basis and you know that's going to be done through like exercise um eating healthy food being connected like some people are so disconnected from their family and friends and their community whatever that may be and that's the most important thing they say that one of the key factors in success is are you connected are you helping other people are you giving are you giving or you're just taking off people so you know don't focus on what you've been through and let that just be like the past and and what is happening today you can't even deal with the future like don't even get what some people are so they're suffering anxiety from what

could might happen in the future but you have to just focus on today you know what what what is the point of looking back i just think just think it can really consume you. And you could go your whole life without ever truly being happy because you're worried about the future or you're thinking about what happened in the past. There's something crazy in this truth that to overcome your own struggles and your own pain,

it seems to be the case that by helping others, you kind of help yourself. And I've observed that with a lot of people that have been through tough times they say that you know the the their recovery has come from just like you know making content for other people or being there for other people and it's often the case that people who had the worst childhoods then focus all of their sort of adult life on helping kids or you know wanting to support kids in some way and there's something in that which I think is quite profound and human. It's not, yeah, it's not a cliche. It's not like some, it's an actual fact that when you are giving back,

when you're helping others, it makes you feel good. And so it's tuning into that. Like I do that on a massive scale with a big community. But you could do that with a few people you know, your friend, your auntie, your cousin, your nan, whatever it might be. Like you can help other people on a smaller level and build your own community. But that is so so important i think we're so detached from and

we're so focused on social media and having followers and engaging with people that we might forget like also people close to you the real people that you grew up with in your family that that raised you they're also really important to stay connected to there's this um i don't know if you've read this book called lost connections but i had the author of the book johan harry on this podcast and i asked him a question as to why people in the Western world, like the UK and the US, were so depressed and anxious and all these kinds of things. And he said one of the really interesting things he observed from his studies abroad was that in other cultures in Asia, when people are told to go and do something to make themselves feel good their default over there is to go and help someone their family members their nan whatever yeah over here in the western world because of society and social media we go and help ourselves we go shopping we do something for

ourselves yeah and he said that the the market difference and the impact it has on your happiness is just tremendous that you know our default because of advertising is do you know what i'll go get my thing i'll go get my hair nails done i'll go buy myself an iphone or a new outfit definitely i agree on that and that's not the human way to to help yourself you shared a really nice quote from as well saying that you can be you can be you know around hundreds of people but if you're not giving anything back or giving something that's going to help those people you can still be very lonely like you can have millions of people around you or all this love as such but you can still be very disconnected and not attached to to people and so um i am on i feel like i'm on a little bit of a spiritual i'm not religious in

any sense but i feel like and i'm not into the i'm not like tony robbins and nlp and all that sort of but i'm on some kind of spiritual journey where i'm really learning about myself quite quickly and what does and doesn't work and what makes me feel good and what is helping others. And it's a case of trying to tune into that. And obviously with business, we sometimes often focus on, you know, the profit and the turnover and the growth. But sometimes the purpose, if you can focus on the purpose and what you're really trying to achieve, then it suddenly like brings success. It kind of follows you and it pushes you like a momentum in what you're doing. And what is your mission then for like let's look forward now what's your what are you working i know you're doing a lot more with young children as well and in young people what is joe wick's mission for the future my mission is to i want to be remembered as someone that just

really really really got like millions of people active and and feeling good and exercising and eating healthy food and that's going to be from kids in primary school right through to adults and i'm i really want to be someone that inspires basically so it's not just about how many books i've sold or how many instagram followers i've got it's like can i truly make an impact like culturally like culturally get families exercising together like why so this is the question i always ask when i ask that question because because i'm seeing it happen i'm seeing like i'm seeing these parents with my youtube workouts doing a workout with their five-year-old kid and it makes me so happy and the message they're sending is my little kid hasn't got off their sofa all summer and they've just done a workout

and they're they feel amazing and we're all eating a healthy recipe tonight now that is important and it makes me happy and i think if i can do that millions and millions of times over why wouldn't i like my cat i can inspire i've just got to work out how to reach more people so it's the why is because it makes me happy and secondly because i'm helping people live a healthier life like that that and i you know i think in 20 years time when you remember the body coach like you remember jame ol, it's because not of his book sales or how many companies he's at, it's because he was the guy that got kids eating better in the UK, or he was the guy that, you know, has always been on a mission to get people healthier. So I do believe I'll be here in 20 years time. I do believe that

other trainers around might fizzle out and might not be around, but I will still be doing this in 20 years time. I'll still be sharing a message and being positive and evolving as i go with what i'm doing and you've gone from being a young guy that didn't have money grew up on a council estate and didn't know sort of material things to now having you know three i mean you sold millions and millions and millions of books you hold records for um your recipe book i believe right so my yeah my second book so my first book the lean in 15 one is is the second best-selling cookbook of all time after Jamie Oliver so Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals

sold 1.6 million and my red one sold 1.4 so it's been mad it's been mental and I remember like that's real people it's not just book sales

and revenue and like commission on books it's like that's actual families cooking for my book and it does it does really motivate me it does get me gassed

and think come on let's do another book like why not it's a long process doing books though right yeah it's a long process it takes a lot of effort yeah with the recipes and stuff It does really motivate me. It does get me gassed and think, come on, let's do another book. Like, why not? It's a long process doing books though, right? Yeah, it's a long process. It takes a lot of effort, yeah, with the recipes and stuff.

But I've got another three books in the pipeline. Exciting. Can you let any cats out of the bag yet? So the next one's called Wean in 15, which is a baby book for babies and toddlers because I've just gone through the process of getting Indy onto solid foods. And it's fun, but it's also quite daunting. You're not too sure what to do.

So I'm now building a sub brand, if you like, and a separate audience on another Instagram called weaning 15, where I'm now sharing like recipes and content for parents and the engagement on that has gone crazy. It's actually, I think in a few years time will be bigger potentially than what I'm doing on the body coach stuff. So this is a question as someone that, you know, pretend I didn't know this industry. It just happens to be the industry that I'm in.

But one of the questions that a lot of people will wonder and ask is, how do you make your money? And what's your philosophy for making money? Because you've got a very big audience of very engaged people. You do something that a lot of um brings a lot of value to people's lives how how are you monetizing this and living off it okay so the first thing i did was launch an online fitness program so i've obviously got my free content which is my youtube channel i make a little bit of ad sense from that it's not massive it's not my main thing um i've got obviously my instagram and recipes and stuff and then I've got my online fitness plan, which is a 90 day plan. You sign up through my website and you get tailored meal plan

and recipe workouts. So that's one revenue, which is the online plan, which is my most lucrative, my most lucrative part of my business. The second thing is obviously the books, which... And how much is that online plan? It's 97 pounds.

And we've had half a million people do it in the past sort of five years. So it doesn had half a million people do it in the past um right sort of five years so it doesn't take a genius to do the math yeah i'm really i'm really proud of that and and and again that was something i just saw like uh not a gap in market i just saw that i was getting all these questions i was driving them to my youtube channel but i could produce a plan so it's like i saw the demand and i created the plan put it out to the world and didn't really know what was going to happen but that is a you know i'm really proud that I've got that many people to do that plan because it is changing their lives. It really does help and gets them healthier.

I've then got my book. So, you know, the book advances were tiny when I signed up. But when you sell three and a half million books, you can imagine the book advances grow exponentially and the royalties and stuff. So I've got the online plan, the books. I've got a partnership with Gusto, which is a recipe company box. And the interesting story to this is that I turned down a deal with a supermarket for two million pounds. And I never talk about numbers, but when I get called a seller, I think if only you knew

all the things I said no to, all the brands with energy drinks and post this and do that. And I say no to so many things. But when that supermarket deal came, it was like ready meals. It was fast food and microwave dinners and um you know all that sort of stuff and i thought look i'm not doing it there's no way i can do it but i thought i need to find another opportunity in the food space so gusto is a recipe box company you still learn to cook it's all healthy ingredients so that was kind of filled the void of the two million pounds that i pushed away and that's that's been so

successful it's been so so well received because people... If they still want someone to do it, then I'm joking. Oh, you want to do the supermarket deal? I'm joking. And so that was a big decision. But yeah, so I've got... Sorry, I keep having to summarize it.

The online plan, the books, the Gusto partnership, and then you've obviously got merchandise in terms of I've got pots and pans and a deal with my protein um from the huck group so but again you know these things aren't lighting up the world but it's still things that i have the chance to do and i have an opportunity and sometimes it's good sometimes you think wow that's going to go mad and you're going to sell millions of pounds of pots but you know that's a different kind of product it's a slower burn you know and um i definitely say no

to a lot of brand partnerships because of the money i make through other things if i wasn't then obviously i'd have to be promoting your peanut butters and your energy drinks and all this sort of stuff and money what what impact it like i've almost asked this question before but was there anything that you wanted to buy when you were broke like i was and you thought you know and you went and bought any toys or anything that anything material that you. I didn't. I wanted to just I really always wanted to have a house, you know, like own a house. Now, when you when you're in a council house and it's always rented, like none of not one member of my family has a mortgage. I mean, think of that like one of the people I know own a house. So like for me to buy a house and own a house and and be mortgage free is amazing.

So the first I know this is super cliche, but you might feel the same that when you weren't money you wanted to take care of your mom and dad so the first thing i did i bought my mom's council house for her so she she has that and she's done it up and she's super happy with that and then i bought my own house um so that was the that was the main thing was have a nice place to grow a family um i like guitars as you can see i'm learning to play the guitar um i've got an electric skateboard i've got a boosty ball which i love but i'm pretty low maintenance i'm not someone who kind of as i got exponentially wealthy that i went and bought exponentially bigger and grander things like i love my holidays i love experiencing things i like traveling with friends and um you know if we go skiing i'll sort my friends out if i go to vegas i'll get the hotel

and pay for some of the you know the booze and that it's not like um it's all the time but I do love bringing my friends together and someone make my mates a skin so I said come on we're gonna go to um Ibiza for a few nights you know things like that but I'm not I'm not very materialistic I did I did buy um a nice watch when I turned 30 but I never wear it I just got my Apple watch on all the time what watch was it I bought a Rolex nice and I never thought I'd ever want a watch but I thought I'm 30 um you know it's a big day let's get saints here you know remember it and I bought it and I liked it and it feels nice but I actually quite feel quite shy when I wear it I feel like it's a bit showy offy right so I I wear it if I go to like a nice wedding or party or something but

I actually just I'm much more I'm an Apple man really so I bought a Rolex and then I lost it if I go to a nice wedding or a party or something, but I actually just, I'm much more, I'm an Apple man, really. I bought a Rolex and then I lost it. Oh, you lost it? Yeah, I thought to myself. I know someone who got bashed over the head the other day in London. They stole it off his wrist. So be careful of your Rolex. Well, no, this is actually part of the story.

So I came home one day and someone that works at SocialTune, my business, was staying in a spare room for a couple of days while they were sorting themselves out. And their car keys got taken out of the drawer. Their car got smashed up around the corner and my Rolex went missing up my room.

Oh no. But I thought, Stephen, you're a rookie, you know, should have better security so I'm punishing myself. I'm not going to buy another one

for another five years or something. Yeah. But I did like it when I had it and it was good for like special occasions. What's it like for you

being a 28 year old, just turned 28? Just turned 27 last week. God, you're even younger 26 a week ago also it's even more inspiring what what is it what is it what is it meant to you and for you to become wealthy and have this huge company because you've got an empire essentially and what does it feel to you and how when when you think about money yeah did it change your

perception has it changed has it inflated your ego if i met you five six years ago before you're making serious dough are you the same man now or has your ego and your personality changed at all my my mom said the thing she's most proud of is that i haven't changed at all and all of my friends have said the same thing like because honestly it does it just doesn't matter to me and in the same risk like the reason why i really don't i sold my ranger and bought bicycle and like it's because money i've especially as i've gone on this sort of self-development journey of really understanding what happiness is

and where it comes from and intrinsic motivators versus doing things because you want to show off. And basically because of this podcast, I've learned what happiness is more and more. And I know that it's not amassing large amounts of money. I don't care about the wealth side of things.

And even with my, I said it, I said in this podcast, when I was making, when I left my first business when I was 21 years old, I was making 70 grand a month from being a consultant, from all these brands paying me just to tell them what to do with their businesses. And I could not find the motivation to walk down the stairs in my apartment

and respond to an email just to send an invoice that would make me 20 grand i said to my business partner at the time if i go downstairs and send that email we'll make 20 grand right me it comes into my bank account i can't be asked to go downstairs there was no motivation to make more money really 100 it would it would have no impact on my life i could buy everything i was 21, traveling the world, making 70 grand a month. What's 80 grand a month when you can fly however you want to fly,

stay wherever you want? I had no overheads. Did you get flashed though? Did you have a little black? No, because I couldn't, I didn't even know how you got flashed.

What was I going to buy? You got into like the club and seeing and going like popping champagne, spraying that beef and all that good stuff. 100%. See,

I've never done that. When I was 18, I saw all these guys spraying, like buying all these bottles in clubs. So I thought, I'll give that a go, see if that makes you happy. Did that for a whole year,

just buying Dom Perignon bottles in nightclubs. Spraying your dough. These nightclubs knew me, right? And there was this little star by my name because I'd come in and I'd buy five bottles of Dom Perignon and that didn't do it. That didn't make me happy. I've got a good question for you.

So I know what you wanted at 18 and i know you as 28 year old steven what does 38 year old steven want because you know like gary v like i'm gonna buy the new york jets man his whole life is built up towards that what what do you want in the next 10 years what's your goal i can't say anything about another man's ambitions but for me when i'm 30 years old i i'm I get so much out of this journey of this like philosophical journey figuring out what happiness is and I'm getting smarter and wiser I'm making because I'm helping others but I'm making decisions in my own life that are bringing me closer to feeling good every day yeah I totally agree you know feeling better every day I feel good every day now and so

one of the big things I'm I love this podcast because i get to unpick people's brains and learn more for myself it's a very selfish thing but in the i know it's selfless in the sense that you'll listen as well um what are my goals for when i'm 30 honestly don't have a couple of them a couple of kids maybe yeah i do i want more balance so one thing i've always said in response to that question is more balance so that means um tying the knot potentially i'm still in a place where you were where i'm not 100 sold on marriage yeah but i'm sold on having a long-term partner and i'm sold on having loads of kids um and then helping my family more helping other people more and then do you know what i think the big thing is really going after some of the world's big

biggest challenges and what i mean by that is maybe politics and really trying to disrupt politics as someone that is not a politician and has a very unapologetic view on the way things should be done. Or does that mean trying to go after the education system or something like that? I think that's, I want to put myself in a position where I'm fucking terrified

and where the world, half of the world fucking hates me because of what I believe and half of the world understands me. sounds like an amazing mission man i love that you know what it is you are very inspiring and the fact that you you do a lot of stuff with schools don't you yeah yeah project working with young young children yeah we have them yeah we just done that tv show with channel four which was um which is still sort of feeling the effects of now and and i bet you love that i bet i bet i ask you, I just know that that probably doing that, I bet it was exhausting,

but I bet it's also one of the things that you've probably enjoyed and got the most satisfaction from, right? Yeah, 100%. You nailed it. I hated the process. Exhausting. I was just saying to the girls on my team,

waking up at 6am and having to walk down the same street eight times just so they could get the angle, sitting in a classroom for an hour where kids are just like telling the teacher to F off and asking me what five times five is. Exha exhausting when you've got a business to run right but the coming at the end of it my perspective on education was transformed and I was inspired and I was in love with to us I was in love with young people again and realized how important they are and and also

how delicate it is like as you said with your story, how a small thing that happens when you're younger can knock you either one side of the fence to believing in yourself or to not. And how malleable and influential young people are. So, yeah, so influential and so kind of, so impacted by decisions at a young age. If a child doesn't exercise through primary school and secondary school you are really going to struggle to get them moving as an adult they

could be sedentary their whole life so it's the same with anything if you can get the early you can get in there and into their mindset and that's what i'm doing the school's thing it's like i'm teaching that it's fun it's quick it's simple and you're going to feel better and i'm changing behaviors and the culture of exercise in the home and bringing i keep saying to parents i keep saying you keep saying, you're a role model. If you sit at home with your kid and you just watch TV and you don't ever do any exercise together, your child will never want to do it. Like you need to start demonstrating it. And it's really having a nice effect on people. So that's kind of the big mission now is engaging families and kids exercise, you know, through fitness and having fun with it and just keeping on the mission really.

I think you're going to go a very very long way I think you are too mate 27 years old you on the Forbes list yet you should be oh no I don't care about the list no no you're not

so I guess my last question then which is why I ask all my guests if you've heard this podcast before you probably you should have prepared an answer if you listened go on yeah but no one ever

prepares an answer to this dinner party this is one of those questions you always get stumped the guest for the dinner party and I always think oh it's like

who's your favourite musician or what's your favourite movie I always struggle but how many am I allowed to invite them different ones so there's a table

there in this hypothetical room right I'm there because it was my idea to have the party you're there because it's your house

okay I'd probably I'd definitely have I'm a massive fan of The Office so I'd want David Brent there but not as Ricky Gervais I'd want him to be

actually David Brent so The US Office or the UK one you don't like the US one no I tried it I love both it was just ripping off

all the jokes so I'd have David Brent for the comedy and for the value in terms of interesting interesting kind of subject matter

to talk about I'd probably say someone like um i'd probably have richard branson i think from a business perspective and just like he's kind of you know the way he's just built that company is incredible and he's very mission driven as well um so i've got ricky gervais i've got richard branson um is it getting harder hang on uh. Can you have a musician to sing music and stuff? Anybody you want. I'd probably have someone like Stevie Wonder singing some music. I love going and watching him. I love Stevie Wonder.

Have you seen him live? I've seen him a few times, yeah. Stevie Wonder's the last in a generation, I think. Yeah, Stevie was at Hyde Park this summer, wasn't he? He was incredible. I saw him in New York briefly. Could I have my mum there? Of course you can. Yeah, I'd like to have my mum because i'd conversation i'd like

to you know get her you're just a because i'm proud of my mum and it'd be nice for us to be there if we're having this great dinner david brent although he'd be yeah you want to introduce your mum to david brent in terms of food right this is my dream food yeah whatever yeah i'd have a like arancini and calamari to start nice i'd have burger and chips with truffle parmesan fries right um and people are gonna think joe burger and chips yeah this is my but this is my dream like death row meal and i'd also have for dessert i'd have like a um chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream so i love my food but my favorite if i go to any restaurant if there's a burger on the menu i'm always getting it i mean i'll always choose the burger and because we've just had a

burger and chocolate fondant we're gonna have to do some kind of exercise right so what what exercise would you make the dinner party do i'd probably do a little 20 minute hit session in between courses yeah like a few burpees we squat jumps is that your like go-to like quick yeah that's my most of my content is just literally me in the living room with my body no weights no no equipment no kettlebells because you can actually have a really good workout and have a good physique i maintain my physique through body weight training really really yeah i did like weights when i was little but i do you know pull ups and dips and press ups and things so keep it simple get yourself moving

amazing and i'd love to see uh david brent trying to do a little yeah 20 minute that would be funny a lot if you watch my stories a lot of my humor like i just do like office jokes and it goes over some of people's heads but people now i'm like look i'm not making these jokes up you need to watch the office well anyway listen thank you so much for your time it's been an absolute pleasure um listen i don't have to tell people where to find you because they can they can type in the body coach joe wicks anywhere and you'll come up i'm sure there's no uh there's no other sort of imposters um it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you and really sort of get to know you and um i've i've

come away with a lot because more than anything because of how you are as a human being i think that's probably really underappreciated that people can see things on social media, but of all the people I've met on this podcast, you certainly feel like there's no one more authentic than you and real than you. And also your intentions as to why you're doing what you're doing are unquestionable. So thank you, man.

Thank you so much for that. You know, you're having me on. I'm genuinely excited to be, and I hope that I've added some value to the audience, but I also, I'm super inspired. i love being around successful people and it's rare because i'm on my little world and my instagram my tripod and just me in in this living room so to meet other people that are doing well in their field it's incredible and um i hope that people out there find it inspiring and one little challenge for you is this week for the rest of the

week send voice notes back when you get the dms see the impact of you just doing it and and you might get some back you might not but you will you'll realize you'll understand in a week just how amazing and powerful it is and how how much that person will love and appreciate that that you've sent that and it's quicker it speeds things up you can do way more to spend half an hour doing it and i'd love you to let me know how that had an impact on your audience and your personal feeling of like what you're doing okay kind of it amplifies your your your mission and what you're doing so when you put out something positive through voice note it's way more powerful than a bit of text so do that for a week and send me a message yeah and anyone else out there too don't ignore the voice note function on instagram dms hit it up send a voice note and watch your community grow and and

you know not just in scale, but in depth. And that's so powerful in this day and age. It's all about engaging and caring about those people on a real deep level. And you will grow your business and your brand or whatever it may be. And so, yeah, that's my top tip. Amazing. Thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate having your time today. Thanks, mate. me

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